Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. – John 3:5
In unity, verbs arise
The Bible records the deeds of Jesus in four books: the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Among these, only the Gospel of John documents the first year of His three years of ministry. In other words, the other three Gospels focus primarily on the activities of the two years leading up to His death.
The Bible passage mentioned above describes an event from the first year of His ministry, where Jesus goes to Jerusalem and engages in a conversation with Nicodemus, a teacher of Jewish law and a leader in Israel. Temporally, this conversation could be considered Jesus’s first teaching. To prepare for His ministry, Jesus’s first action was to gather disciples. According to the Bible, He initially appointed twelve disciples. One might wonder why specifically twelve. Although not backed by solid scientific evidence, it could be because twelve is about the maximum number of individuals among whom analog emotions such as love can be fully exchanged. Beyond this number, while knowledge or commands can be transmitted, the conveyance of emotions like love may have limitations. This is why, similar to armies today and ancient Roman legions, the smallest unit was about ten people. If an organization needs to grow, emotional communication responsibilities must be delegated to leaders of these smallest units. As the organization expands, roles like leaders of ten, a hundred, and a thousand emerge.
After training and empowering the twelve disciples for approximately two years, Jesus sent them out into the world.
“When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2)
Later, Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead of Him to every town and place He was planning to visit. If each of the twelve disciples trained twelve others, that would make 144. However, only selecting those deemed capable might have resulted in exactly half that number being chosen.
“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” (Luke 10:1)
In English, the sentence structure typically begins with the subject and the verb, followed by additional elements that complete the expression not fully conveyed by the subject and verb alone. However, sometimes the verb is not immediately obvious because, unlike in Korean, verbs in English do not change form to express a wide range of meanings by themselves. Korean verbs can infinitely vary to express different nuances: for example, “보다” (to see) can become “보자” (let’s see), “보렴” (see), “봐야 해” (must see), “보아라” (see), “보십시오” (please see).
English verbs, on the other hand, only undergo simple changes in tense and person, without the verb itself changing form as in Korean. Therefore, to express even a fraction of the nuance found in Korean, English must employ different methods. Unlike Korean, English achieves its variety of expression not by changing the verb itself but with the help of modal verbs, adverbs of frequency, and prepositions, among others. It’s like creating variation through teamwork. For ease of understanding and memorability, let’s call this team of words that come together to form complex verb meanings the “Verb Avengers”. This isn’t a proposal for new grammatical terminology but a way to simplify understanding.
Verb Avengers: <Modal Verb + Adverb of Frequency + Verb + Adverb + Preposition>
The issue is that this concept might be confused with existing grammatical terms such as phrasal verbs and verb phrases. To clarify, let’s differentiate our concept of the Verb Avengers from these terms.
A verb phrase is a group of words that functions as a verb in a sentence. A phrasal verb, on the other hand, is a combination of a verb with a preposition or adverb (or both) that together take on a new idiomatic meaning. For instance, adding “out” to “look” to make “look out”, or “for” to make “look for”, or both “out” and “for” to make “look out for” are examples of phrasal verbs.
While these concepts are similar, the distinctions are subtle. For example, in “I will look it up,” “will look” is a verb phrase, and “look up” is a phrasal verb.
Ultimately, these distinctions aren’t significantly impactful. We might as well call our Verb Avengers a type of verb phrase. However, to emphasize the teamwork aspect, the sequence, and the patterned nature of these constructions, we’re proposing to call it the Verb Avengers. If we were to distinguish them:
- Verb phrase: A combination of words acting as a verb
- Phrasal verb: A verb + preposition/adverb -> forming an idiom
- Verb Avengers: <Modal Verb + Adverb of Frequency + Verb + Adverb + Preposition>
Now, let’s focus on the lead player in our Verb Avengers team: the modal verb. Modal verbs are relatively simple in use, positioned at the beginning of the “Verb Avengers” to refine the meaning of the verb, regardless of person or tense. The modal verb “do” is noteworthy, serving as an auxiliary in negative and interrogative sentences, but it can also emphasize the verb itself.
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)
Here, “do” is used before “believe” to emphasize the act of believing. Other examples include “be” for continuous aspects, “have” for perfect aspects, and “will” or “shall” for future intentions. “Will” not only indicates the future but can also emphasize determination, as seen in God’s encouragement to Moses:
“Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” (Exodus 4:12)
“Shall” is less commonly used today, often replaced by “will,” but it can indicate the speaker’s intention rather than the subject’s, especially when used with the second and third persons.
“Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death.” (Exodus 21:12)
The past tense of “will,” “would,” typically follows the usage of “will” for past tense meanings but can also express a desire in the present tense.
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)
There are many books and articles on interpersonal relationships and diplomacy, but could the strategy for dealing with all people be summed up by the biblical phrase, “This sums up the Law and the Prophets”?
“Would” is often used in everyday conversation as a polite and indirect way of making a request, similar to the following biblical verse:
“Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, ‘Would you please tell me where the seer’s house is?’” (1 Samuel 9:18)
“Should” is used not only as the past form of “shall” but also to express obligation or what is considered right. “Should” is less strong than “ought to” or “must”. Therefore, “should not” expresses prohibition.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.” (Psalm 32:8)
This implies the path one ought to take.
“You have done things to me that should not be done.” (Genesis 20:9)
This “should not” carries a prohibitive meaning, indicating something that shouldn’t have been done. Especially, “Should + have + past participle” can express regret or what should have been done in the past.
“You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23)
This means they should have focused more on justice, mercy, and faithfulness. The modal verb “Can” is most commonly used to express ability, permission, and when asking questions, to speculate about possibilities. The phrase “cannot help doing something” means that one is compelled to do it.
“We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20)
“May” is used to express permission or in special cases to make a wish. Its past form is “might”.
“On the seventh day wash your clothes and you will be clean. Then you may come into the camp.” (Numbers 31:24)
This grants permission to enter once the condition of cleanliness is met. “Must” expresses necessity, obligation, or moral imperative, as in the phrase, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” “Must” can be replaced with “have to/has to/had to” or “ought to”, and its future form is “will have to”, while its past form is “had to”.
“The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.” (1 Corinthians 8:2)
“Must + have + past participle” is used to make a strong assumption about the past.
“Something must have happened to David.” (1 Samuel 20:26)
“Need” means there is a necessity for something and, like “Dare”, it is used as a modal verb only in negative sentences and questions. In affirmative sentences, it acts as a main verb, followed by an infinitive.
“But John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” (Matthew 3:14)
“Would rather” expresses a preference or desire, while “had better” is used for advice or recommendation.
“I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue in the church.” (1 Corinthians 14:19)
“Intelligible” means understandable or clear, so “intelligible words” means words that can be understood.
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